Hi there everyone,

I have been reading this site for a while and gained lots of useful information. One step I took last week was to buy myself a set of Accu-measure calipers to take my body fat, I had used the Tanita scales at my gym previously but they seem to fluctuate a lot. I tried the calipers for the first time last night but I have to say I found it more difficult to take the measurements than I imagined - does anyone have any tips? Is there any website you know of with a picture of where exactly to take the suprailiac measurement? I am not sure I was getting the right place and I ended up black and blue after pinching myself 10 times trying to get a consistent reading! I would say I have reasonably high b.f., about 25%, but I found it really hard to grab hold of much by my hip, certainly I carry most of my fat on my thighs and bottom, typical pear shaped girly I suppose.

Any tips would be very welcome.

Thanks,

Nicky

Tom Venuto has an ebook around on how to measure bf using the accumeasure calipers, although im not sure if its free or not.

Try looking at the bottom of this page:

http://www.hussman.org/fitness/index.htm

There is a section called "How to use skinfold calipers, step-by-step" that I found very useful.

Cheers,

Bruno_in_paris

This 3-site body fat calculator is pretty useful, too. There are diagrams showing the spots to measure:
http://rustyiron.net/formfem.htm

Thank you for your suggestions everyone, I will have another go tonight!

Nicky :tu:

I'm planning on getting the accu-measure calipers but from what ive read it just needs one location (an inch above the hips) for reading BF. If this si the case does that mean, the caliper wont work for the 3 site locations BF testing? and other calipers wont work with the hip thing?.

Thanks

I just picked up a set of Accu-measure from fleabay for about $10 delivered.

Check them out before you pay retail.

I'm planning on getting the accu-measure calipers but from what ive read it just needs one location (an inch above the hips) for reading BF. If this si the case does that mean, the caliper wont work for the 3 site locations BF testing? and other calipers wont work with the hip thing?.

Thanks


no, you don't need different types of calipers... the real difference is that you usually get a more acurate bf % if you use multiple sites

thanks chameleon. So basically theres no difference between this caliper and any others?.

thanks chameleon.

no problem...

So basically theres no difference between this caliper and any others?.

that's not necessarily true... some are better than others (but the differences won't be big).. just remember, you get what you pay for.. buy really cheap and you get really cheap stuff... I'm not the one to ask about what brands are better though... although the most important thing to get right is the spot you test, make sure you're testing the same spot everytime and make sure it's the right spot ;-)

:tu: cool :cool: thanks again.

Guys (and gals), I'm having a hard time pinching the fat there at different sites.

For example, at the chest measurment site, I can either grab a whole bunch, or just a little depending on how i start my fingers. Same thing with the stomach one. I never moved on to the third measurement (my thigh) because I though I was going to die of pinching. Oww!

Any tricks?